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Sophie's Log scheme of work, by Samm Line The overall aim of this scheme of work is to get students to create their own Log. Through this experience there are countless opportunities for them to try different styles of writing, as well as exploring themselves. The emphasis is on self and identity, which is why we created a progression plan that requires them to consider what they were like as younger children, where they are at present and where they see their future going. I never marked anything unless I said it would be formal. I put the emphasis on it being their Log, and something they would keep forever.

These lessons can be done in any order, and quite honestly, a lesson can be made out of almost every page of the Log, but hopefully here are some starting points with a few hints on what has worked. The majority of the activities are individual based, but there are also plenty of opportunities for whole class discussion, pair work and small group work.

This scheme was trialled with two Year 8 mixed ability English classes at a comprehensive secondary school in the Summer Term of 2001. Each lesson was an hour long.

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Lesson One

Discussion about diaries and keeping logs etc.

Hand out the copies of Sophie's Log and explain the story behind Sophie ( if appropriate – some teachers may find they want the students to find out them selves).

Give students a good 10 minutes to explore the Log and choose their favourite bits.

Share with the class.

More able to read them out.

My ten wishes: p.14

Read them and discuss the variety of the ideas Sophie had.

Students then write their ten wishes, and doodle or decorate them.

Extension task: 'Things I would take' p.22. Continue to make lists for different adventures or situations. (this could be saved however for a whole 'list making' lesson!).

Homework task to copy out their favourite onto paper (if book can go home).

Or to make or buy their own Log and copy into it their 10 wishes – make sure they date it and leave the front page free to fill in later.

Lesson Two

All about Myself p.53

Read and discuss this style of personal writing. Other resources such as Anne Frank/Autobiography extracts can also be used to see how people describe themselves.

Students can copy out the first section of Sophie's piece, and then finish it off with their own personal thoughts (and for homework) This prompted some quite extraordinary writing from both boys and girls.

Additional homework tasks: Students find a photo that they feel is the real them, similar to the one of Sophie on the cover and find an old children’s book at home which they remember loving as a child.

Lesson Three

Children’s book: if possible take students to the school library.

Sophie writes reviews of book she read when she was little. Get students to discuss their favourite books as children, or find one that appeals to them now. By reading Sophie's review and comparisons with additional resources of other adult reviews, analyse briefly the difference in the language. Students should now write a review of their favourite book as a child, and now as a young adult. The aim being to see how their writing and ideas have developed.

Homework task: To complete and add to personal Log.

To begin to record any strange or interesting dreams they have.

Lesson Four

Nature poems: Sophie writes lots about Nature and the seasons. Look through all her poems in the first section of the book. This can be a standard creative writing lesson on descriptive poetry, or writing to a frame work. Using 'traditions' p.20 provides a good starting point. Encourage students to decorate their work Homework: to try and find an old school exercise book with some stories they wrote when they were little.

Lesson Five

Goothrans:

Read the Goothrans in small groups and discuss what makes it a 'children's' story. Set the task of writing the rest of the story.

Students can do this in pairs – able with less, one as scribe, one as illustrator. They can use the same characters and/or develop new ones.

Complete for homework. This task can use ICT if needed, so that both students can stick a copy in their Log.

Lesson Six

All My Life p.42

Read and discuss the themes of the poem with the class. Get students to brainstorm down words that they associate with growing up, sibling rivalry etc. (good opportunity for using a Thesaurus here!).

From their brainstormed words, give pupils a free rein to write their own poem around these themes. Some less able may find this quite hard. I got some to simply remember a moment when they were aware of a brother or sister or other relative being more or less successful than them. They could then simply write that memory into a poem, rather than story.

Encourage students to try and get a first draft of this written in the lesson.

Homework task can then be going back to the poem and editing it. Remind them how Sophie reworked and re-drafted several of her poems for her Best Poetry Book.

Lesson Seven

My flat p.54 (a really fun lesson, my Year 8 boys loved it more than the girls! Possible extra resources can be ‘Living’ style magazines, scissors, glue and sheets of A3 paper).

Read the extract. (Many students may be surprised by Sophie wanting old things, my students though it was very strange that anyone would want to buy something from a junk shop!). Discuss the future and what would be their dream home.

They have the rest of the lesson to use the magazines if they want, to create their own ground plan (like Tomas's house p.28) and write about it as well. The finished plan can be stuck into their Logs. There is also an opportunity here for pupils to do a presentation of their ideal home to the class.

Many of my students, particularly the boys who created some amazing submarine/football pitch/spaceship designs, loved this. However, I always emphasis that these Logs are private and therefore students do not need to show it to anyone if they don’t wish to.

Lesson Eight

Career planning p.76 A level choices p.58

This links well with the last lesson in terms of getting students to consider their future.

Discuss the 10 year plan with students, and where they see themselves heading. For some this will be a daunting task! Differentiation here is totally in the outcome. Several of my less able students for example would not consider A levels or University, (and quite justifiably!). This is another opportunity to get extracts from interviews or biographies where people have discussed their future. I also didn’t interfere with the more outrageous, in fact I encouraged it!

Once pupils have a 10 year plan (and some were hilarious but imaginative!), they have to write to their parents or close friend explaining why they want to do this and how they think they are going to achieve it.

Using Sophie's letters as guidance is helpful here. A discussion on the tone of a personal letter is good too.

Lesson Nine

By this point, I found my students were really taking off in all directions. I took one lesson off any formalised task to encourage students to catch up anything they had not yet copied up, or to simply flick through the Log and find some inspiration. They all had to have something added to their Log by the end of the lesson. Some just added doodled, some copied up poems they liked, some wrote up their dreams, other wrote more lists or designed party invitations. As Sophie is e-mailing by the end of the Log, we discussed how communication has developed. Several students then did their own text alphabets and wrote text love poems about nice boys or first dates – some were fabulous!

Homework: to look through old holiday photos, or talk about a holiday with their family.

Lesson Ten

Travel writing:

Read the several examples in the Log of travel writing. Sophie had been to some lovely places and appreciated that. I had to encourage my pupils not to disregard their memories if they were not so exotic. The aim is to simply remember a holiday experience. I discussed the idea of the ‘aesthetic’ quality of memories, how we remember if it was really cold, or food we ate, or something strange we saw.

If required, this can be done as a timed exercise, and then redrafted as a simply grammar exercise.

Lesson Eleven

Drama!

Try and use a Drama studio or a school hall for this. You will also need to nip down to your nearest Poundstretcher and buy five or six pairs of identical sunglasses.

Read the poem 'Sunglasses' and discuss the themes of the poem. Discuss how Sophie was bullied at school for being different and how she saw conformity in her friends.

Divide the class into five groups. Each group has one pair of sunglasses. The aim is to create a short improvisation that sums up the tone of the poem. Depending on the knowledge of the teacher and students, try and encourage something beyond a typical 'bullying scenario. Students can use thought tracking, narration, physical theatre and other drama strategies to create their work. They should have something to perform by the end of the lesson.

A review of their work and that of the other groups can be completed for homework after a class evaluative session at the end of the lesson.

Lesson Twelve

Haiku:

Sophie's Haiku is possibly one of her most touching and beautifully crafted poems. Discuss the power of the haiku with the class and have other examples to read.

By this point students should have built, perhaps without realising it, a relationship with Sophie. I simply asked my pupils to write as many haikus as they wanted about Sophie, or the Log, or one of her poems, or about nature, to their parents and friends, lists, growing up, any of the themes covered in the Log. Some might try writing one to Sophie, or her parents.

As a closing to the project, I got the students to write what their Log now meant to them on the front cover of the book. They could do this in any style, haiku, straight prose, a rhyming poem in Sophie old fashioned language, as a text message, anything really.

All the way through I encouraged the pupils to doodle, stick in pictures, old letters, pictures of themselves and their families and friends at different stages, bit taken from old note books.

Even by the end of the four weeks, my students reflected differently on their 10 wishes from the first lesson.

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